The XYZ Affair featuring A & M
by Midnight Parallax
Summary: My take on nickledime17's one-shot alphabet prompts. Name is revealed and Open is up next.
1. A is for Anything

**The XYZ Affair**

Bottoms up! My take on the one-shot M/A prompts. I'm new here and thought this was a cool idea. Hope you don't mind me joining in? Or that I'm too late to join the party? Using Nickeldime17's brilliant list.

* * *

**ANYTHING**

"Call me if you need anything…"

Those were his parting words to her. After everything they had been through together, they were finally going their separate ways…

He hadn't said 'goodbye,' not the actual word itself or even the shortened version of 'bye.' She wasn't sure why and refused to contemplate too much on it. She wasn't exactly a fan of long goodbyes either. Why drag it out? The pain, the emptiness, the void that the person had left.

Besides, they would probably see each other again someday.

She knew he wouldn't approve of her thinking that, taking tomorrow or any day after for granted like that. But then again, she never cared about anyone's approval about what she could or could not do, especially not his.

So there she sat, playing with her cell phone in her hands.

To call or not to call?

She didn't really need to hear from him. He obviously didn't want anything to do with her since he hadn't called her once in the six months that he'd been gone. Then why did she feel the urge to call him?

Before she could answer that thought, her phone started vibrating in her hands.

It was Logan.

"Go for Max," she said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey you," he said and she could tell he was smiling on the other side of the city.

Of course he would be smiling. They had gotten the cure seven months ago. They could pick up right where they had left off with no Manticore, no White nor deranged breeding cult to interfere. There was nothing standing in their way. It was almost as if the last two years hadn't happened…

The virus. The Jam Pony incident. The siege on Terminal City. The final battle with the Conclave the world would probably never know about.

There wasn't anything standing in their way now.

"So is this business or pleasure?" asked Max.

Logan let out a sigh. "Business, unfortunately. No rest for the wicked or the good guys who try to stop them."

Of course. But this was her job now – on and off hours.

The government had offered the transgenics citizenship on the basis that they either worked for the local law enforcement or the military. They had been surprised by the offer, which had come to light when Lydecker came back from the dead to testify on their behalf. It hadn't been a particularly humane testimony.

According to their former CO, they were multimillion dollar toy soldiers who had been brainwashed into loyalty to the American government and its interests. Private files had been handed off to Congress, depicting exactly what Manticore had been up to. Not everything they had been up to, just anything that proved how useful and obedient the transgenics actually were to them. Plus the scientific community had been over the moon when they learned about just how far the project had gotten. The scores of diseases and ailments they could treat with such advanced technology. But the government was more interested in utilizing what they had already paid for.

Alec had chosen a covert military career that required him not to disclose his location, while Max decided to remain with the Seattle police department as a detective.

Logan went back to his Eyes Only gig, taking on corruption from the inside with the help of Max and other transgenics. Both Max and Logan were back to fighting the good fight beside each other, dancing around each other because work always came first just like before. They had picked up exactly where they had left off, and hadn't gone any further.

"Who is it this time?" asked Max. "The mayor? The DA? Or is someone smuggling funds for a secret program to build cyborgs bent on destroying humanity and taking over the world?"

"Actually, my guy said that the South Africans are back in town," Logan informed her.

Max sighed. "Just when I was hoping it was space aliens that kidnapped the mayor and replaced him with one of their own."

"I take it you're still looking for a reason to break his hand for touching your ass last month?"

"Maybe… Either way, I need to re-teach someone a lesson."

They were waiting for her at the docks. Of course they had. Nothing ever went down well at the docks. They remembered Max's habit for heroics. It was supposed to be a simple recon mission. Wasn't it always supposed to be that before the bad guys started chasing her?

There were two of them behind her and three more guarding the transgenics they had managed to snatch. They were just as big and stupid as ever.

She ducked into a warehouse and tried to hide. She wasn't sure how they had found her, but she was going to put up one hell of a fight. Smashing open a crate, she was hoping to find something – anything – to use against them. What tumbled out of the crate were fine china plates, crashing to pieces as they hit the floor. That had to be useful for something, right?

Wrong.

As she hurled the shards, they just kept coming. One was holding her from behind and the other was trying to bind her hands and feet. It all happened so fast. There was a loud sound. One minute she was flailing midair, the next she hit the floor. Fortunately, the Red soldier cushioned her fall. Another gunshot echoed through the warehouse and the other Red almost fell on top of her, but she rolled out of the way. She looked up to see a smirking smart aleck had been standing behind him.

He extended a hand to help her up, but she brushed it aside.

"What is with you and giant stupid lugs who can't feel pain?" Alec asked. "I mean can't you get ones like Mini-me or I dunno, the Legion of Doom?"

"What're you doing here, Alec?" she snapped as she got up.

"The military heard that the South Africans might be up to something in Seattle and I figured you would probably be involved. So I decided to come for a late night stroll," he told her nonchalantly.

She glared at him. "Come on. They've got Rex, Heath, Sunny, and Bree. If you want to be the hero, you can't half ass it."

"Hmm… now where have I heard that before?"

After showing the South Africans that transgenics were a force not to be reckoned with, Max and Alec found themselves roaming the streets of Seattle in the early hours of the morning with no particular destination in mind.

Logan had gone to bed after she let hi know what had gone down that night, but her body was still full of adrenaline and she hardly slept anyway. Alec had wanted to raid the fridge at Logan's new place, but Max had turned down the idea since she didn't want to disturb him. They could have gone to Max and Cindy's new apartment, but Max had promised that she'd be away all evening.

So there they were at three o'clock in the morning, wandering and talking about what they had been up to since they last saw each other.

Max still went on Eyes Only missions and fed him info on police corruption, though they couldn't let anyone else know about that. She and Cindy had left the building they were squatting in once Max got her new job and better salary. Logan and Max still were more work than play, but that was how they were.

Alec had been in several different locations on assignment. Mostly he was a trainer, working at bases in Florida, New York and Texas. Once he had been sent to London to guard the ambassador and got shot. Max teased him about how many new conquests from all walks of life he must have had. He had made some new friends, but nothing had lasted since he was busy. No one came close to comparing to what he'd had in Seattle, but he wasn't about to give up his new job. He liked the travel and the respect he'd come to earn from those who worked with him. It was also the kind of work he'd spent his life preparing for.

Finally, he worked up the courage to ask, "Why didn't you call me back at the docks?"

She looked at him strangely. "I didn't know you were in town, moron. Maybe if you'd bothered to call me—"

"I told you _anything_," Alec said pointedly.

Max stopped walking and turned to face him. "I didn't need _anything_. I needed you."

Did she just say that? Both of them blinked in confusion.

"Oh, well if that was the case…" he began, a huge arrogant grin on his face that almost made her want to punch him. "Then that was my bad."


	2. B is for Brick

**BRICK**

"Where are those reports?" demanded Max.

"I don't have them," Luke told her, trying not to let her see that she was scaring him.

Max was never pleasant to deal with when it came to the supply reports for Terminal City. Usually they were short of everything needed to survive, let alone the luxuries that some of the denizens were demanding. Then they would have to plan and execute supply runs which always involved someone getting shot and half the time they ended up getting only one item on the list. Last time, Alec had gotten shot and instead of getting the truck of medical supplies they had to settle for only the truck full of VitaminWater that happened to be driving by.

"Alec was supposed to give them to you hours ago."

"Well, his door is locked and I haven't seen him in a while," Luke replied, glad that he wasn't the one who would have to face Max.

She stormed out of the Command Center. She stomped all of the way to the other side of Headquarters to where Alec's office was. She couldn't believe that he was shirking his duties again. Okay, maybe she could.

A giggle interrupted Max's train of thought.

Two X6 girls were standing down the hall from his office.

"He's pretty good," the blonde one said with a dreamy, lop-sided smile.

The brunette grinned. "Yeah, I'm glad he let me watch."

Well, that was enough to help Max get an idea about what he'd been up to. Same old Alec. It made her want those reports even more so she could smack him upside the head with them.

She didn't even bother to knock on the door, she just opened it. She had every intention of tearing him a new one for slacking off.

"Max!" he exclaimed when he saw her, slamming his laptop shut like a little boy who had just been caught by his mother doing something naughty.

She eyed him suspiciously. "Like it wasn't bad enough you ditched the reports to get some voyeuristic action with a couple of X6s, but you're spending the rest of the time looking at internet porn? Unbelievable! Even for you."

"What?" asked Alec, processing what she had just said. "Hmm… You're just chock full of twisted sexy ideas today. Really good twisted sexy ideas. Are you sure you're not in heat?"

Was he serious? She had a good mind to smack him upside the head and make sure that he never experienced a good twisted sexy idea ever again. But first she would punish him for forgetting those reports.

Snatching the laptop away from him, she said, "This is what you've been up to all day?"

Then she opened it and looked at the screen. Instead of an 'Oh, you're so busted and I'll have you on night duty for a month for looking at naked ladies instead of working' moment, it was an 'Ok, what the hell I know you're kinky but even this doesn't make sense to me' moment.

"What is this?"

"Tetris. It's the game where you fit together these colored bricks to earn points. I'm up to Level 117."

Max glared at him. "This is what you've been up to for the last seven hours? Tetris?"

"Seven hours?" Alec gaped at her.

She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled his face close to hers. "Listen up Pretty Boy, you better have those reports to me in an hour or the next brick you play with will be the one I'll be using to hit you upside the head with, got it?"

"Wow Max, you really need to stop with the kinkiness. I mean, I know I inspire those kinds of thoughts in women, but we're supposed to be at work," he said with a wink.

* * *

A/N: So this was inspired by not one, but three guys I know who had an addiction to Tetris instead of getting actual work done on the computer. One of whom was a co-worker I was annoyed with that day. But unfortunately he's not remotely cute or cool or interesting, give me Alec any day.


	3. C is for Cold

**COLD**

It was a dark winter morning when Alec entered his office for the daily grind. They had been trying to conserve energy, so the heat was running at a bare minimum to prevent hypothermia. He rubbed his hands together. Just great.

He sat down at the desk he had left last night at some ungodly hour and woken up at the crack of dawn to return to. It was too early for work. He decided to take a sitting position that was more appropriate for that time of day, so he leaned back on the hind legs of the chair and utilized the desk as a footrest. Paperwork was not his area of expertise. Nor had he ever hoped to master that art. When he was doing his back alley deals, they were fewer and easier to keep track of since it was just him and nothing was ever long term. People's lives didn't depend on it.

Now that he was de facto treasurer of Terminal City and Second in Command, he had to keep track of too many little things that eventually turned into too many scraps of paper. And it wasn't the kind of paper that he liked, which was the cold, hard cash that he hadn't actually seen much of since the Siege began. No jobs in Terminal City paid, except in survival value. All supplies were acquired through heists and thievery, and then rationed out to the populace at large. Cash wasn't money inside the gates, it was just useless paper that couldn't buy anything. Not food, not heat, not freedom.

Hadn't he planned on leaving this place as soon as he could after Max's little speech a couple of months ago?

Right, like that was going to happen. Between the thermal scanners and having his face plastered across every TV and computer screen in America, pegging him as one of the leaders of the transgenics, he could just slip right through the angry mobs and police barricades and blend right in.

Once again, his life proved that somebody up there hated him. And here on Earth, Max had become the divine tool of dishing it out and delivering the really bad punch lines.

Alec thought of ways to make his life suck less as he reclined in the flimsy chair that came with the dirty room to match. He made a mental note to steal and entire shipment of laptops in the near future. That would make his job easier. Plus the endless supply mischief the internet could provide was also very enticing. No Macs though. Logan used them and they screamed urban hipster. Instead he would nab a bunch of upscale PCs and have Dix hook them all up with Linux, which just screamed renegade intellectual with a glamorous exterior. True X5 fashion.

He further cursed his luck when his sensitive ears picked up the early morning serenade in front of his door. The song of Max and Logan.

"I can't believe you're making such a big deal out of this," snapped Max's voice.

_Maybe I should've taken an office in the basement_, thought Alec annoyedly. _The sound of the generator and the boiling heat would be better than listening to this day in, day out._

"I'm not making a big deal out of anything. I just want to make sure everything's all right with you. That you're not working yourself too hard. Is that so wrong?" Logan insisted in a tone that could be taken as patronizing to a fiercely independent transgenic.

"Everything is all right," Max shot back. "I can take care of myself."

Suddenly the door to his office flew open and immediately slammed shut in the same motion. He wasn't sure if it was the residual force that the door gave as it was closed or the unexpectedness of seeing Max appear so quickly in his office that caused him to lose his feline balance of the chair and fall backwards. Of course, he managed to land on his head.

"Ow," Alec hissed as he tried to regain his composure and get off the floor.

"Alec?" asked Max's voice.

He reluctantly peeked above the desk. "No, it's Larry the magical finance elf."

"What're you doing under your desk?" inquired Max, crossing her arms in front of her with a suspicious expression on her face. Evidently, she hadn't noticed that he'd fallen and the sound probably registered as collateral noise from the door. Then a horrified look made it's way across her face. "Oh god, there's a girl under there with you, isn't there?"

"I wish… And even if there was she'd have died of fright by now thanks to your graceful entrance," Alec told her as he stood and picked his chair up. "What do you want anyway?"

"Are the plans for the heist ready to go?"

"Oh no, I have until tomorrow to hand those in. So you can take your Logan issues and beat on someone else today," he answered.

Max glared at him. "I don't have Logan issues."

"Normally, I wouldn't care. But you've got your 'I can't smack Logan because I'll kill him but Alec's available' look on. Spare me, okay?"

She maintained her cross-armed, no nonsense stance.

"Just because you're the one running this freak show and I decided to hang around doesn't mean I want to hear it. Get out."

"We can work on the plans together now so I don't have to review them later," she said in a tone that made it sound more like an order than a suggestion.

Alec wasn't sure what to do. Physically throwing her out of the office was tempting. Then he realized that she was hiding from Logan, who was probably still outside the door. Logan refused to set foot in Alec's office or waste anything more than casual civility on him since he and Max were back to being 'not like that.' The annoying quasi-couple would probably go back to bickering in front of his door if Max went out there, which Alec didn't look forward to. Plus she'd be even bitchier when critiquing his plans after being chewed out by Logan.

He walked over to the closet on the other side of the room that he used to store the maps of Terminal City, Seattle's sewer systems, and the like which the transgenics had acquired in their time on the outside. They were all stored in neatly marked cylinders, which had been done by Dalton one day when he was bored. Alec found the kid handy, especially when his office needed a good cleaning. As Alec was looking through them, he heard Max grumble and decided to take his time finding those particular building plans. Or at least that was what he thought until he heard the noise again. It was her stomach growling.

"There's a plastic container of mac and cheese in my drawer from last night," Alec said without looking at her. "Eat it or throw it out. Josh packed it for me and I forgot about it."

He found the cylinder he was looking for and walked over to her.

Max opened the drawer and found a plastic food container with a napkin and plastic fork beside it.

"You sure you don't want to heat that up?" Alec asked as he unrolled the blueprints across the desk.

She ignored him and began devouring the macaroni from last night's dinner at the mess hall which she had also missed. She must have been hungrier than he thought, because it was the instant kind that tasted good when it was fresh but tasted like raw dough after it had gone cold and she still ate it. Cold. It was either that she was that hungry or she really didn't want to go out to the kitchenette to use the microwave, and then she would have to run into Logan who was probably still lurking around.

Now the cat in him was starting to get curious.

"It's fine," was Max's mumbled reply before she spooned in another mouthful.

"Logan's pasta not hitting the spot anymore?"

"Thought you didn't want to hear it."

"Don't want to. But I'll listen anyway because it's distracting you. And if you're distracted, there's a higher probability of me getting shot on this heist."

"Whatever. I didn't have dinner last night, okay? I got caught up here and forgot Logan was making dinner for me. Then we started arguing over how the whole thing had gone cold while he waited for me. I didn't even get breakfast because we started arguing again this morning if you didn't notice."

"Some things are better colder." Then he stuck his fingers in the container and took a bit of macaroni to shove in his mouth. He made a disgusted face. "This is not one of them."

Max couldn't help grinning at the expression on his face. "Yeah."

"Seriously, I could heat that up for you," he offered.

Max thought about it for a moment. "Fine. Maybe it won't taste as bad then."

Alec nodded.

He leaned closer to her with his hand stretched out to take the remaining macaroni from her. He wasn't sure how it happened, but his hand brushed over hers. Her hands were cold. His hands were warm and his touch warmed her skin.

She was almost sure that it scorched her skin and had left a mark.

She could feel the warmth running from that spot to all over the rest of her. His right hand covered hers and he didn't dare to move it. No, he moved his other hand. His heated touch found its way to her face.

Her blood changed its flow. It became quicker, thicker, so fluid she could feel every vein and artery from her head to her toe. She felt warmer inside.

Her breath was caught in her throat at this realization.

He exhaled and a warm breath brushed against her face. His face was getting closer, or was she the one moving towards him? His heat burned with longing to become one with hers.

Was it a moment? Was it minutes or hours that they spent feverishly devouring, savoring, inhaling each other in a desperate attempt to drive out the cold?

The stale macaroni had been long forgotten. And Alec's desk finally found a better use.

The only thing they wanted to taste was hot and unheeding. It burned their mouths and they gasped for breath only to want more.

Nothing else mattered.

Time had frozen for them.

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A/N: This was my first love scene ever. Hope I didn't do too bad of a job.


	4. D is for Daughter

**DAUGHTER**

Karmic retribution.

That had to be it.

This was karmic retribution for every horrible thing he had ever done in his life. Rachel. All those one night stands, a hundred fake promises and a million other things Psy-Ops had wiped out of his head. Now it was time to pay the piper.

Everyone else in the infirmary waiting area had been beside themselves with glee, Logan especially. But all Alec could do was drop himself into a chair and hope that no one was watching his despair. He had thought he could deal with all of this until now. Did it have to be a girl?

It just figured. All of his bad ideas involved women, how was this any different?

Lola. Rachel. What's her name with a V. _Max_.

Alec let out a sigh. She was his best friend. That was how he had been suckered into this twisted little arrangement. That was how he now had a daughter that wouldn't be his daughter.

The idea hadn't seemed so bad when Max and Logan first pitched it to him. They couldn't have children of their own – genetic incompatibility, the doctor said. But they still wanted a family of their own.

It had started off as a joke in Command about Max and Alec being former breeding partners. That was what instigated this whole mess. They were so genetically compatible for one another that Manticore had tried to force them to procreate. It was Logan who asked Alec though, not Max. He had been so desperate but she was skeptical about the whole thing, fearing what it would do to her already complicated relationship with Alec. In the end, it became clear that either she would have to raise a pure X5 child with Alec's DNA or a human child fathered by Logan and an unknown surrogate.

Alec wasn't a family guy. In fact, he recalled being told that any child he ever fathered would be Manticore property. He had been willing to hand off his and Max's first-born to Renfro to save his own ass. Handing the kid over to Max and Logan for them to raise in a loving and nurturing environment would be a piece of cake. Besides, he would get to play godfather with the kid. He would get to see it all the time and have none of the parental responsibility. It was a win-win situation all around.

Then why did it feel like he had lost everything the moment he laid eyes on her?

Max had thought it best for Alec to meet the baby alone before anyone else. The request had seemed odd and no one really understood why she wanted that. Logan was a bit taken aback by it, but it was what Max wanted. When Alec entered the room, he understood why.

He went over to the bed where Max was sitting, she looked like she'd crawled through a Phalanx attack alone and come back. She was smiling in a way Alec had never seen her do before. He sat next to her, his eyes transfixed on the tiny sleeping bundle in her arms. The only other baby he had ever seen was Gem's daughter Meg. She cried a lot and occasionally smelled or puked, which was why Alec avoided her like the plague.

Somehow, he felt differently about this one. He could watch her for all eternity and not mind.

"She's perfect," Max declared.

"Of course she is. Did you expect any less from me?" Alec said with a wry grin. His large hand covered her whole head when he touched it. "She's blonde. I was always a sucker for blondes."

This caused Max to laugh. "Oh, that's why you have such a hard time saying no to Logan?"

Alec scowled at her, but she ignored him.

"Do you want to hold her?" asked Max.

A look of genuine terror crossed his face. Hold it? What if he broke her? "I never held a baby before."

"Here, I'll show you," she said and placed the dozing creature in his arms.

She weighed next to nothing and his heart rate accelerated. She was just so fragile. Max helped him adjust into the right position to support the baby's head. As Alec held her, an unexpected feeling came over him. He hadn't expected it to be so abrupt or so deep, he just knew she was his and that he didn't want to give her up. Never let her go. Was this what Berrisford felt about Rachel? The thought made him feel a million times worse for what he had done. Oh, this was definitely karmic retribution.

"She'll always be your daughter," Max whispered in his ear. "You can come see her whenever you want."

Alec nodded. "Even at 2am on a school night?"

"You better not be coming back from some cheap fling or a strip club, because then no way in hell. Otherwise if she's got my nocturnal DNA, then yeah," Max told him. "But if she's got your penchant for sleeping through an earthquake, you can take her to school in the morning."

"I can live with that," he said like it was nothing, but they both knew it meant everything to him. "And when those punks start lining up at the door to take her out, and that will be a _long_ line, let them know it's me and not Logan that they have to go through. No offense but Logan's not intimidating enough for such a huge task."

Max laughed. She was happy that he had taken such a vested interest in their little girl, not that Logan wouldn't do a good job. Max had only just met her and couldn't imagine life without her. But Alec had promised to give her up to make his friends happy. He deserved to have her all to himself for a brief moment, to know the joy that he was giving them.

"Don't you even want to know her name?"

"You already picked one? Please tell me you didn't name her anything ridiculous," Alec pleaded. "I mean, Fixit?"

"Ralph?"

"Point taken," he relented. "So what is it before I decide to exercise some parental rights?"

"Eva Rachel Guevara."

Alec smiled, not smirked. "Perfect name for my perfect girl."

He kissed the top of her head.

Definitely karmic retribution for his past sins.

He'd been forgiven.

* * *

A/N: I wanted to explain the idea of "karmic retribution" here. Karma is not some 'eye for an eye' concept. It's about keeping the universe in balance. At first Alec thinks that the kid is meant to be a punishment and that she will suffer for what he's done. Then he realizes that she's actually meant to bring him joy for all the things that he's already suffered. To keep things in balance, he can't keep her. Hope that makes sense. Karma is weird like that.

A/N 2: This was actually a different story than I originally wrote. The first one was meant to be a funny piece on how Alec died and Logan had to be stepfather to his son with Max, Ben. But Ben hates Logan because he's ordinary and Ben has been spoiled because everyone misses Alec. Ben tried to sneak into to the girls' locker room or lost a bet of some sort when he's twelve, where Logan has to pick him up from school where he is dressed as a girl. It sounds better in concept than it was actually written, and I apologize for that. But if you still want to see it posted, I can put it up.

A/N 3: I don't know when I'll update this story again. I want to finish posting _After Life_, and also write a scene for it that I never got around to but really wanted to, as well as an epilogue. Plus I need to finish _Another 48 Hours_ and start its sequel, among the other hundred things I've got going on right now.


	5. E is for Enough

A/N: In my usual whimsical fashion, I was typing up the next chapter of _After Life_ and realized that I wanted to rewrite it, because I think the story and the readers deserve better. That means I'll be back here, and probably posting _Another 48 Hours_ sooner rather than later.

**

* * *

**

ENOUGH

He sighed and stared at the bottom of his glass. It was empty. Again. An entire bottle of whiskey and it still wasn't enough to dull the pain. How much more before he finally found relief or just died?

He didn't dare count how much he drank since she told him. Maybe it was because time had just stopped while he kept pouring. It flowed past him with every burning mouthful that slid down his throat and clouded his mind.

He had meticulously counted every measured glass drunk in the hours before she validated his suspicions. Those first six glasses of Jack Daniel's didn't count because that was just speculation drinking. When he didn't know what they had been up to in her apartment that night, he could at least hope that he had been mistaken. But really, if he didn't believe that was the case, why did he open the liquor cabinet the moment he returned home? Why didn't he stop pouring after the fourth glass?

Confirmation of betrayal drinking was more insatiable, more unrelenting than speculative drinking. Speculative drinking involved stopping the imagination. Confirmation drinking was trying to blur out of reality itself. There was no stopping. You just kept going until something gave out – your mind, your heart, your liver. Maybe if you got lucky it would be all three at once and your worries really would be over.

He remembered that it would take a lot more than what he had to make an X5 get to that point. But he wasn't an X5 and it still didn't seem like enough to drown out the sorrow.

Betrayal had leaked into the very bones of his existence and nothing was going to wash it out.

His face was growing warm with a sticky wetness. He staggered into the bathroom to splash some water on his face, washing away the tears that had fallen for losing her once again.

It was an odd sensation, feeling his hands move across his face. It brought back memories of the last time he held her face in his hands, the last time he had kissed her before the window for intimacy was slammed shut on them once more. She had gone off with Alec before to hunt down that gossamer thing. She was always dragging Alec along these days. Heck, if Logan wanted Max, dialing Alec had become an option and often the boy knew where she was.

Running his tongue along the roof of his mouth, he wondered if they had been together then when they had the temporary cure. The thought made him almost taste Alec inside of her mouth as it collided with his own. He re-edited that once sacred memory to make it another piece of damning evidence against her.

He wasn't sure when the idea of Max and Alec being intimate had first entered his mind. It was probably when Max let it slip that Alec had been assigned as her breeding partner that he first imagined them getting acquainted horizontally, though she assured him that that wasn't the case. Besides, Logan figured that if Alec had slept with Max that he would've taken the time to torture everyone with that knowledge by casually dropping graphic details into every day conversations.

Well, that showed how much he knew about them. About her.

What they had been doing before Logan saw them that morning had caused Max to smile at Alec like that, to have him pull her head close to his without her pushing him away or hitting him wasn't lost on Logan's imagination in the car on the way home. How many unanswered phone calls during the early hours of the morning, secret hushed conversations, hours spent together as partners in crime would it take for Logan to see what was right in front of him?

When he shut his eyes, he could see them taking stolen kisses when no one was looking. He could imagine them on her bed, Alec touching her everywhere he couldn't, greedily helping himself to every inch while Logan could only watch. Max would smile back at Alec with that look of trust in her eyes as she was under him. They knew each other's dark secrets and didn't hide anything from one another. Alec was as strong as she was if not stronger, he wouldn't have been intimidated by taking her on. Alec knew what he wanted and he never denied himself. It was just one of the many ways Logan would never be enough for her.

Damn that long drive back to his apartment when he had to be sober.

It was more than screwing, Logan had seen that too clearly. The tenderness in their eyes was what wrought him with the real betrayal. If it was just them screwing each other, she wouldn't have walked him out of her building. She wouldn't have watched him as attentively as she had. He wouldn't have lingered to embrace her in reassurance.

Alec could hold her, touch her, console her in a way Logan couldn't. It wasn't just about the virus. If it was just about sex, Logan could have lived with that until they found the real cure. No, this whole situation made him aware of just how little he knew about life in her shoes.

Logan didn't know about being constantly hunted for being different, living every day in fear of being caught and being stuck in a dead end job because you wanted to go unnoticed even though you knew your talents were greater than anyone could imagine.

Logan didn't know the unspoken tortures of Manticore that Max refused to share with him. The same tortures Alec spent even more years living through.

Logan wasn't smart enough to play her at chess with any hope of winning.

Logan wasn't strong enough to fight her or take a hit, let alone pull punches the way Alec obviously did when he fought her.

When had he ever been enough for her?

She was so much more than he was. Sometimes she made him feel inadequate, but that had been fine because when he was with her she let him into that secret world of hers that none of her other friends saw and that was enough. But Alec had access to that world too, and Jam Pony and Manticore and Crash. Alec and Max were the two people that kept Joshua company in that lonely house. Heck, they'd even gone on heists together, something Logan wouldn't nor couldn't ever do.

She'd finally had enough. She'd decided to be with someone who could be her match in every way. Running from a past that didn't let them forget. Running from a present threat to everything they held dear. Someone who Joshua truly considered a friend. Someone who fit right in at Crash and with the other bike messengers. Someone who was like her.

She had always wanted someone like her in her life, another X5, she had once said. Now she had him.

It wasn't that it didn't make sense for her to be with Alec, but the fact that it made too much sense that drove Logan to give up on his glass altogether and drink straight from the bottle.

He had found a half empty bottle of gin in his kitchen, it wouldn't be enough to kill him the way he wanted to die, but maybe it would lull him into a sleepy oblivion with its inadequacy and that would have to do.

* * *

A/N 2: Okay, the original version wasn't this angst-filled. It was more of Logan drawing parallels between himself and Alec in the mirror. It took me a while to come up with this one. _Hello, Goodbye _was one of the most important and greatest episodes of _Dark Angel_, and there are so many good fanfics about it. I hope I did it justice. Reviews make my day!

A/N 3: Thanks to everyone who reviewed!


	6. F is for Frosting

A/N: It took me quite a while to come up with this one. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed or added it to your list. Hope you enjoy this one!

**

* * *

**

FROSTING

Max stared perplexedly at the trendy china plate in front of her.

Dinner at Logan's was always something to be savored. For a girl who spent her life eating only what she could steal or whatever happened to be sold at some back alley stand, this was an absolute gift from the fates. He was a master at manipulating tomatoes into sauces, pasta into a gourmet meal, and choosing the right wine to compliment it all.

Yes, dinner was always magnificent.

Dessert? Well, that was a different story.

Logan wasn't a big fan of sweets, so usually dessert would involve fruit that the markets happened to have in stock that week. It was never pudding or ice cream – even a box of Little Debbie cakes would do, she wasn't that fussy. But in her imagination, dessert was often the best part of the meal. It was supposed to be the grand finale, the decadent treat that was supposed to balance out the practicality of the health conscious dinner.

Dessert wasn't a necessity, but it was one of those small indulgences in life that Max thought tasted almost as good as freedom.

"Is something wrong?" asked Logan as he sat across from her with his fork in his hand.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong… It's just – what is this?"

Logan gave her a confused look. "It's cake, Max."

"Since when do you eat cake?" She just kept staring at it. Something was off but she couldn't tell what.

"Well, I figured that you liked cake so I decided to make one," he said simply.

"Oh," she answered and picked up her fork. Then it dawned on her. "Where's the frosting?"

Their eyes met anxiously, then they both looked back down at their plates.

"I don't like frosting. It's too sweet, has too many calories. I try to avoid it," he told her. Then in trying to make light of the situation, he added, "Not everyone has a super high metabolism."

Max nodded and dug into it with her fork.

Who ate chocolate cake without frosting?

It seemed obscene.

But Logan had gone to the trouble, the least she could do was to eat it.

Unsatisfying mouthful after unsatisfying mouthful, she kept hoping that at some point she would find the fluffy, sugary goodness her tongue craved. But she didn't. The cake was moist and delicious and definitely lacking that final touch.

"Why don't you take the rest of it?" Logan suggested when they were done. "I won't eat it."

"Sounds good," Max said as he packed the rest of the cake for her to take home.

Free cake was still free cake. Now all she needed was some frosting.

The stores were closed at this hour, and she was in no mood for breaking and entering simply for a tub of frosting. Where could she find frosting at this hour?

"Max?" came Alec's confused voice from the couch as she walked into his apartment and made a beeline for the fridge. She put the plastic container down on the counter.

"Alec."

She had thought he would have gone to Crash at this hour, and that she'd have some time to raid his fridge before he brought home his latest conquest. Great, now she'd have to share. Bastard. Maybe if she ignored him…

Alec didn't stop paying attention to her though. She had brought something with her and she was going through his fridge. How dare she? That was one of the few sacred things in his life. Plus she was breaking several of the rules he kept for visiting females left and right, like _Alec was the center of the universe, No touching the fridge, _and _All fridge privileges come after lots of inappropriate touching of Alec_.

But this was Max, and she never knocked or bothered with invitations. She would just barge right in, like he did with her place. Manticore etiquette they supposed. Besides, if he ever did try to enforce the rules he knew that the inappropriate touching would leave him in a world of hurt.

Bodily injury be damned, he wanted to know what she was up to.

Alec walked over to the counter and opened the container as Max glanced through the fridge.

"What is this?"

"Cake."

"There's no frosting. What kind of sick, evil person brings cake with no frosting?" Then he laughed. "Oh wait, it's you."

She turned away from the fridge to glare at him. "Logan made it. I came here to see if you had some frosting since nowhere else is open at this hour."

"Ah," he said with a knowing smile. "And what do I get in return?"

Shutting the fridge door, she said, "Nothing. You don't have any. No thanks for playing."

The smile didn't fade, but grew wider as he opened the cupboard beside him and took out an unopened can of frosting. Dark chocolate frosting. "I was saving this for a special occasion… and/or a really adventurous brunette. But I guess we could use it on cake."

Max rolled her eyes. "What makes you think you're getting any?"

"My frosting."

"Do you have sprinkles too?"

Reaching into the same cupboard again, he pulled out a small container of the Jimmies she liked and waved it in front of her.

"I hate you."

"I know."

He offered her a cheap paper plate and plastic fork. He wasn't big on doing dishes.

They split the cake in half, not bothering to appropriate slices for future consumption. They could eat that much in an entire sitting without so much as an afterthought.

Max had taken first dibs on toppings. She used up almost half the can of frosting along with two thirds of the sprinkles. Alec scowled that he had so little left to work with, dabbing the remainder of the frosting on his cake and dumping on the rest of the sprinkles.

She had watched him adding on the frosting, not caring if it was too much. Alec was the sort of guy who ate his dessert first and dinner last if the mood suited him. He'd once eaten two boxes of Twinkies and called it dinner, and though he had given four to Joshua, he didn't offer any to her.

"Cake's not bad. I prefer store bought though," he commented, then he noticed that she had gotten some frosting on her face. A wicked smirk crossed his face.

"What?" she demanded.

"Nothing."

"I got some on my face, didn't I?"

The horrified look on her face amused him to no end. She reached for a napkin, but his lips were faster. A quick lick removed the offending smear.

"No need to waste it," he said in a cool tone, pulling away from her. The truth was that he'd done it without thinking, and was now internally panicking that she would now have to beat him six ways from Sunday.

Instead, she looked at him perplexedly.

Then with a quick movement of her hand, a smear of frosting appeared on his nose.

"Of course not," Max replied, with a devilish smile he never saw on her face before as she leaned in closer to him.

"I knew I was saving this for an adventurous brunette."


	7. G is for Girl

A/N: Forgive me for the lameness of this one, but for some reason I wanted to use this one. It's the answer to one of the many questions I had about Dark Angel. Thanks to all my reviewers!!

Listening to: _I'm Just A Girl_ – No Doubt

* * *

**GIRL**

"One question," White said as he and Sandeman stared each other down.

"Just one?" his father asked incredulously.

Alec was busy tying White securely to the chair, but his eyes never left his father.

"Why her? Why a girl to be your precious savior? Why not… him?" White demanded, motioning his head toward Alec.

The young man finished and walked to where Max was standing.

All eyes were on Sandeman.

"Because... Girls kick ass. Says so on the T-shirt."

* * *

Max smiled.

"Ow! Max, what the hell was that for?" shrieked Alec as he rubbed his behind.

"Just fulfilling my destiny." Max remained completely nonchalant.

White scowled. "Someone shoot me before I have to watch anymore of their foreplay. He's so obviously the girl in the relationship."

* * *

A/N 2: My other idea for this was a quick dialog as well. Two packages from Mia show up at Jam Pony some time during Season 2, and Normal gives them to Max and Alec. Max got a T-shirt saying "Girls Kick" and Alec got one that says "Ass." But I liked the one above better.

A/N 3: I've been on a roll with the other letters, but Hero is giving me a hard time. _After Life_ is waiting for a good idea as well.


	8. H is for Hero

A/N: This was like the twentieth attempt to write something that would work for this prompt. Anyway, there was a DA marathon on Sci-Fi Channel when I remembered how everyone keeps trying to figure out where Alec was in 'Harbor Lights.' So I couldn't resist. The events take place before and after the episode, not during.

* * *

**HERO**

Alec picked up his drink from the counter. Scotch neat. The boys at Crash didn't even ask anymore.

He swirled the amber liquid in his glass. First drink of the night. He wouldn't bother counting how many it would take to wash out the bad taste guilt had left in his mouth. And he hated this particular type of guilt, because really he hadn't hurt anyone or gotten anybody killed, so he shouldn't have cared.

"Boy, where you been? Original Cindy ain't seen yo triflin' ass for a week," she said as she took a seat by him at the bar.

"Aw, you missed me?" he asked with a cool grin. "I'm touched."

"Hardly. I just came by to let you know our girl had a run in with some serious trouble – and you weren't there to help her out," Cindy told him, the bartender handing her a beer. "After all the times she saved yo ass, you can't have her back one time?"

Alec took another sip from his drink, then glowered at her. "I was busy."

He didn't want to talk about it. It was pretty damn clear if Original Cindy was talking to him that Max didn't talk about it either.

"Yeah, we got that. Well, while you were _busy_, Logan was there…"

There was no reason to keep listening after that. The last thing he needed to hear was how Logan Cale had saved Max's day. How Logan had once more risen to the rank of hero while Alec had been the bad guy… Again. Original Cindy didn't even know that half of the story as she went on about the tale of Max's rescue from the wicked clutches of White and the CDC.

No one needed to know what he'd done. The role he had played in getting her into that situation. What they'd done that led to Max getting in that gas line, looking to fuel an escape.

As Alec downed the rest of his drink, Cindy knew he was drowning her out. There was no getting through to him when he was like this. Brooding. She had only seen him like this once before and knew to keep her distance.

Picking up her drink, she didn't bother to say that she was leaving him alone to scowl in peace. She just walked away and he didn't even bat an eyelash in her direction.

She didn't know that she had made a bad situation worse. That now he was even more guilty than he ever thought possible. Max had gotten hurt. It was his fault and it wasn't at the same time.

The memory was burned into his psyche the way Max's touch had marred his skin that night. It was an immortal invisible imprint on his soul.

It was the best and worst night of his life. He hated how all of his best memories were tainted with tragedy. How could he have expected this to be any different? That was what he got for going after the ones he couldn't have.

Shutting his eyes, it replayed in front of him. The whole damnably sinful evening.

He had been at the bar in Crash, after the whole gossamer thing had blown over. Apparently the cure had only been a temporary one, so Max was back to moping. Having lost her window of opportunity, she would be spending the next few days bemoaning it. She had called in sick at work the day after. Logan had probably locked himself in his apartment, burying himself in work, which would explain why Alec couldn't find Asha to finish what they'd started the other night. So there he was, drinking by himself waiting for the next warm body to cozy up to him.

If only Alec knew what was in store for him, how badly the odds were stacked against him that evening, he probably would have gone somewhere else.

Probably. But that wasn't what happened.

Of course not. Because he was Alec, perpetual screw-up extraordinaire. If he wasn't getting himself into trouble, the universe would find a way to rectify the situation.

It had been while some girl with brown hair had swaggered up to him, hoping that he'd offer to buy her a drink. She wasn't that bad looking, but he couldn't explain the awful feeling at the pit of his stomach that something was about to go wrong. In his life, he had gotten far too many of these feelings to actually warrant much notice. So he carried on as if it were nothing. He would burn that bridge when he got to it.

Too bad it wasn't a bridge or any other stationary object. No, it was something on the prowl.

She hadn't been looking for anyone in particular. She was too hurt from that lost moment with Logan that all she wanted was something to dull the pain. It didn't help that her heat decided to come knocking when her sexual frustration was at its peak. Heat was bad enough without all that pent up energy. The first day had been bearable at least. But now, when it had really set in, she couldn't take it anymore.

Original Cindy was out of town visiting some sick aunt, which left Max on her own. There was no one to talk her out of pulling on a pair of new cargo pants and that really cute sweater that made Logan stutter whenever she was in the room. Half the reason she wore it was because it reminded her of him. Maybe if she wore it, it would remind her who she really was meant to be with and keep her from doing something stupid.

The emptiness of the apartment started to become unbearable after she changed. Silent and hollow, when all she wanted was something to drive out the pain and loneliness. She had been ready to tear her hair out when she finally decided to get some air.

Wasn't this the same way the hook-up with Rafer had started? A tangled memory of want and guilt and rabid instinct that she hated remembering, but also reveled in at the same time, came back to her. She knew what she was risking when she went out that night. Or at least she thought she did.

Crash was more crowded than usual. There were so many warm and willing bodies to choose from.

Why had Alec ignored all of them the minute she walked through the door? Maybe because she was his friend and he knew she had been feeling down. Yeah right. It was that sexy gray sweater and the pants that looked painted on. He hadn't seen her like that before.

Her eyes had been surveying the room when they connected with his gaze.

Good old Alec, trying to score his next bedmate for the night. For once, Max wasn't really repulsed by the thought of Alec seeing some action. With her. Her moral compass must have been wherever Cindy had gone, because whatever usually pointed her away from Alec wasn't there anymore. She had appreciated his good looks, it was just his personality that ruined the package.

"Hi," Max said in a measured tone, her vision focused on Alec the entire time. Inside her head, she kept insisting that this was probably some heat fantasy gone awry. Alec didn't look at her like that – full of want.

"Hi," Alec replied easily, though it was anything but easy.

"Hello? Standing right here," squeaked the brunette he had been talking to.

"So?" Max asked, not tearing herself away from her visual evaluation of Alec.

He had to know what was going on with her, right? If not, there was no reason not to admire the view. He was wearing that blue sweater he seemed to be wearing every day now, that was nonetheless adorable on him. Or maybe it was just that he was adorable. Whatever.

The other girl was about to say something else to draw the attention back to herself, but noticed Alec's gaze was just as intensely fixated on Max.

So much for a hot random hook-up.

So much for not being the bad guy. He couldn't take the dangling of something so tempting in front of his face. He just wanted her, and nothing was going to stop him from bridging the gap between himself and Max with a long and passionate kiss that left them both breathless. He was the one who broke the barrier, not her. She just reciprocated. Very, very willingly.

They had gone back to her place since it was closer, there was no thinking about it.

Sure, the experience was mind-numbingly fantastic enough to leave him still feeling it a week later, wondering if anything else would ever compare. But in the short hours afterwards, he had decided to run from it. He crawled out of bed when he woke up, knowing that she was probably awake and pretending to be asleep, pretending that it had all been some heat induced dream and not reality when she woke up.

He had sworn to himself that he was not going to get dragged into Max and Logan's stupid little love drama. What had he been thinking? Wait, he wasn't thinking. He just really wanted to touch every inch of her, taste her, make her scream his name. It was the tomcat, not him, that was in control.

Alec had seen what getting between Max and Logan had done to Asha, heck even Zack, and he wasn't going to let himself be another casualty to their failed attempt at star-crossed romance. Hell, she'd burned Manticore to the ground to get back to him. No freaking way was he going to be the next sacrifice to the altar of broken toys.

So he ran.

After an hour of driving aimlessly along the highway in a car he'd jacked from some drunk at a strip club, he found himself staring at the charred remains of Manticore. Even though it was gone, he still felt trapped by it. The whole incident with Max had been their fault – trying to make perfect soldiers with imperfect science. It was their fault for making her in the first place, for pairing them up to breed. Alec loved that little irony and chuckled softly to himself. Still doing just what Manticore wanted them to, even when they were supposed to be free.

They hid what they were from their enemies until the strike. They kept a low profile. They lied. They broke.

Max mixed it up a bit with her heroine routine. Alec bounced between the roles of lovable sidekick and bad guy, depending on what the occasion called for. Or how bored he was.

Damn it, he hadn't even done anything wrong. He wasn't supposed to feel like he'd hurt her when she had begged for it in the first place. Literally begged. And she was the one who started round two, not him.

Then she really got hurt trying to escape from what they'd done.

He wasn't the guy who pulled the trigger, but he felt like he was. It was his stupid inability to control himself; he could have just walked away. He had enough sense to do it the moment he realized what was going on. Why didn't he? Why did he initiate that kiss?

She got hurt trying to get away from him, served up to White on a nice hospital tray. And let's not forget the CDC getting a whiff of a transgenic. No one needed to know that Alec had been the catalyst for the whole fiasco, along with the fact that he hadn't even been there to fix the situation. Not when Cindy and Joshua saw Logan as the hero of the story. They were team 'Max and Logan.' If they knew what he'd done, even though it really was as much Max's fault as it was his, he'd be the evil monster in this little fucked up fairy tale.

Logan had been there for her when she needed help. That was what mattered. He wasn't a screw-up. He got to be the hero of Max's story once again.

And Alec?

He downed the contents of his fifth glass and signaled for another.

What did it matter what he did?

He'd always be the bad guy, wouldn't he?

* * *

A/N 2: I heard at the SPN Chicago Con last week that Jensen Ackles was angling for _dark chocolate cake _and thought that was funny because of 'Frosting.' I really don't know much about the actors personally, and thought it was funny that I nailed it because for all I knew he could have been a white chocolate kind of guy.


	9. I is for Impostor

**IMPOSTOR  
**

Simon had been watching her from afar, the mysterious dark haired girl who came to the coffee shop every day at this hour. Seeing her was one of the highlights of the time he had spent in Seattle. He tried not to think of himself as being some creepy stalker, eyeing his next victim as she scowled at the cup of coffee in front of her. This week's brew tasted like sewer run-off. But she drank it anyway.

She was pretty. Prettier than most girls he'd encountered. Her exotic features intrigued him. And she had this fierce vibrancy about her. He couldn't help but notice her.

His imagination filled in the gaps for him. Her casual dress style and the fact that she came to this dump meant that she was working some minimum wage gig. Still, that didn't mean that she didn't know how to have a good time. But there was more to her than that. There was something familiar that he couldn't quite put his finger on, like a forgotten dream or smudged memory. Or maybe he was just looking for an excuse to chat her up because she was seriously hot.

It wasn't like he wasn't good-looking too. So many women had told him in his life what a gorgeous specimen he was that he'd lost count. Going up to her and starting a conversation shouldn't have been a problem for him. Except doing that would be opening up a can of worms and he was in no mood for someone fishing into his personal life.

His past was a dark one, filled with death and loss and more fake names than he could count. When he got to Seattle, he was hoping to start a life that didn't involve looking over his shoulder or very far down the road he'd come from. None of the women he dated seemed to want to let that go. They wanted to know about the parents he didn't have, the childhood he'd been robbed of, and numerous places he told them he grew up because he had to keep on the move.

Running a hand through his dark blond hair, he let out a sigh. She had finished her coffee and walked out of the coffee shop like she had done every day this week. Through the glass front windows, he could see her crossing the street like he always did when he saw another opportunity with her go out with the door. What he didn't see coming was the car that hit her.

The vehicle had made a sharp turn and collided with her. She rolled on top of the car, hitting the windshield. That wasn't enough to slow down the driver, who kept going until she rolled all the way off the car, then gunned it even more to get away.

Simon didn't know what he was thinking. All he knew was that one moment he was sitting and drinking his coffee, and the next he was outside of the coffee shop. He had to get to her. He had to make sure that she was all right. A crowd had started to gather around her, but he managed to push his way through.

"I'm fine, really," she insisted in an annoyed tone.

"At least wait for an ambulance," someone said.

He saw her face blanch at the thought. He was all too familiar with that look, the one that said that you had something to hide. An EMT would need personal information for the report and he remembered when he'd been in a similar incident. He didn't like anything that required giving out his life story and he wasn't even going to contemplate what made her so hesitant.

Everyone had their secrets these days, why should she have been any different? Suddenly, that made her even more appealing to him.

"Okay people, back up," he said. "I'll just take my girlfriend to the hospital myself."

She looked at him like he was crazy then realized what he was up to. She had seen him around the coffee shop. He was probably trying to help her. But why? Then she remembered how many guys loved to play the knight in shining armor for pretty girls. Well, she'd just get rid of him later since his statement had gotten the bystanders off her case.

He stretched out a hand to help her up. She brushed it aside and stood on her own.

"You just got hit by a car and you can get up on your own?" he asked her, half-impressed, half-incredulous.

"What can I say? A well-balanced diet and good DNA go a long way," was her response before she turned to walk away from him.

But he grabbed her by the arm. "Wait a minute. Aren't you at least going to tell me your name? I'm Simon, by the way. Seeing as how I got you off the hook, I figure you owe me something."

Her scowl had no effect on him as he grinned, and she didn't want to beat him up after he'd just helped her out. At least not while they were on a crowded street. "Excuse me? I don't owe you anything. I could've handled that all by myself. Now let go before I give you what you deserve – a smack upside the head."

"Fine," Simon said, forcefully dropping her arm. Evidently the girl had major personality issues that he could live without.

As she turned to walk away from him, she froze in her tracks and let out a sigh. How did _he_ find her? Honestly, she must have had some creepy guy pheromone that seemed to draw them to her. "Great. Just when my day couldn't get any worse."

Needing a quick exit, she turned took off in the opposite direction. Simon noticed right away that her running speed wasn't human, and he would know from being a little more than human himself. He wasn't sure what she was running from because it certainly couldn't be him. The girl probably had trouble follow her around like a lovesick puppy. That was why he ran after her. He had to know if she was like him.

Hearing several shots fired in his direction was confirmation for being a magnet for trouble, and upped the odds that she was the same kind as him. Just great, he had to pick a hot girl with even more people on her tail than he did to chase.

Then she did something even more unusual. They were approaching an eight foot high chain-linked fence. She didn't stop running though. She just used her momentum to jump over it. If Simon couldn't do it himself, he would've stopped. But he could, so he just jumped over. The gunshots kept coming because they really needed to remember the armed gunman chasing them.

Simon landed less gracefully than she had, tumbling into a couple of garbage cans she had kicked over to stop her pursuer. When she turned to see how effective she had been in escaping, she was surprised to see Simon on her tail and not the usual suspect.

"What are you?" she demanded, no longer running but facing Simon.

"I could ask you the same question," he replied. "But let's get away from the guy shooting at you first, okay?"

He spoke too soon. One moment he heard the gunshot, the next all he could see was white from the pain. He would have fallen to the ground if she hadn't blurred over to catch him. Someone had gotten shot for her. Again. Too many bad memories came flooding back. She had to help him.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I got two for the price of one," said a coldly malicious voice.

Simon groaned. He knew that voice. It haunted so many of his childhood memories. But it couldn't be —

"Back off, White," she snapped, applying pressure to find out where her companion had been shot. It was in the shoulder and it was bleeding profusely.

"Nice to see you too, Mel McDowell. Aren't you happy to see me? We've been enemies for so long, I feel we've got some kind of kinship," he laughed. "Who's your friend? Since I take a special joy in wiping out you trannie scum, I like to keep a mental scorecard in my head. What is he? X7? X8?"

Apparently Ames White was having way too much fun with this as he trained his gun on both of them. She mentally cursed her luck. She would've cursed Simon too, but he was bleeding so he was suffering enough. As she cradled Simon in her arms, she wasn't sure what to do.

"Dad?" Simon choked out. He wasn't sure which was impairing his speech more, the pain or the blood loss.

"What the—You trannies have hit a new low," White said as he aimed his gun to shoot again. The smile he wore had transformed into a sneer. "Just for that, I'm going to shoot your girlfriend in front of you."

Simon knew that he couldn't hesitate. He needed proof. The mark that had been the burden of his existence would now have to save him. And her. Fighting against the pain, he managed to roll up his sleeve after two failed tries. There it was. His rite of passage. His curse.

Mel stared at him in horror, then pushed his body away from hers like he was a diseased creature. It was in the same moment that White's gun hit the pavement. Time seemed to come to a grinding halt. Her feet took that as the opportunity to get as far away from White and Simon or whoever he was, and leave him to his fate. Damn Familiars. He was White's son! It was official, she had beaten her mother's record for bad luck with men. Her father would never let her hear the end of it. Who knew White had a son?

"Oh my god. Ray, is that you?" White asked at he kneeled beside the young man lying on the ground, still bleeding. He studied the boy, trying to see the child he had lost so long ago. He called 911 quickly, stating that he would wait with him while the ambulance.

"Get away from me. I know what you did to Mom. I go by Simon now," he said in a strained voice.

White's face hardened. "So this is what you want to be? A trannie filth impostor?"

"Well, I figured since whole breeding cult thing was a cop-out that I'd go with Plan B. Hotter girls."

His father glared at him. "Sandeman would've loved having you around. Same damn sense of humor."

* * *

A/N: This was from a story idea that I never developed where Max and Alec's daughter, Mel, falls for Ray White, who was raised by his aunt and doesn't care for his father when he learns how his mother died. He comes back to Seattle where he meets Mel, but they don't know about the other's secret identities until White crashes the party. (Bear in mind Ray only knows that the Coming didn't work, not that his grandfather created the transgenics.) I figured that Max and Logan had a twelve year age difference, and Ray would be at least seven years older than any kid Max and Alec had if they got together right after Freak Nation, so why not? Mel and Ray are my new ship and I'm trying to put together a story for them at some point.

A/N 2: There will be an update for _Just Another 48 Hours_ soon, I promise.


	10. J is for Jealous

A/N: During 'Designate This,' after Max leaves Logan's apartment to go back to Manticore for the antigen, Logan is left alone to guard Alec.

* * *

**JEALOUS**

"So how'd you two crazy kids hook up?" Alec asked.

Being tied up and having a loaded gun aimed at his head wasn't enough to stifle his sense of humor. Or wipe the smug smile off his face. Been there, done that, had Psy-Ops make him relive it in case he forgot. He watched the sweat matting Logan's forehead and knew the virus was setting in. This was getting interesting.

"Shut up," was Logan's reply.

Alec couldn't help feeling sorry for the guy. There was no way Max would get back in time to save him. And Alec was finding Logan so amusing. He was half-fainting in the chair since he was burning up with a fever, and really thought he had the X5 right where he wanted him? This was the guy Max wanted to sleep with instead of him? He wasn't even better looking. The TAC officers were right when they said that the 09ers were defective.

"Just making conversation," said Alec easily. "Wanna hear how me and Max met? It's a funny story—"

"No," snapped Logan. "Don't you ever shut up?"

That didn't stop Alec though. He was going to make the most of this situation. Renfro was going to have to take him off probation once this gig was over. Would she assign him a new breeding partner though? He wasn't sure if that was going to be a good thing or a bad thing.

"See, when Max and her pals blew up the DNA, our sinister director Renfro needed a new way to make her toy soldiers since the factory was out of commission. And she needed a way to unleash her evil bitchy wrath at the same time. So she decided that doing it the old-fashioned way would be a wonderful method of killing two birds with one stone…"

A smarter man would have known better than to taunt the guy wielding the gun with the fact that he had been assigned to sleep with his girlfriend. But this was Alec. He preferred fun to smart if he could help it, since having fun was such a rare thing in his life. Besides, Alec didn't think Logan had it in him to shoot anyone. Alec had been around enough people, guns and people with really big guns to know that he wasn't in much danger.

"Yeah, that's right. I got assigned as her _breeding partner_," he finished. "And let me tell you what a wild ride it's been—"

"That's enough!" Logan gritted through his teeth. If he didn't think about shooting him before, he was right then.

Alec smiled and nodded his head as he heard the next round of the gun slip into place. Oh yeah, he had made Logan jealous. Well, it served Logan right for all the trouble he had caused.

Alec was sure Max would have slept with him by now if the cyber-journalist wasn't around.

* * *

A/N 2: Short, I know. But I always wanted to know how Logan knew that Alec was Max's breeding partner. That would have been a priceless conversation. Initially, it was supposed to be Max telling Logan but I thought it'd be funnier this way. I really have this thing for Season Two fill-ins, don't I? My first fic was 'Take Two,' then I have the chapters 'Enough,' 'Hero,' 'Just Another 48 Hours' and now this. I doubt this will be the last in here too. And for some reason aside from 'After Life' I've been overusing Alec's perspective. I really want some more Max perspective in here.


	11. K is for Kiss

**KISS**

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," came a voice from the dispatch counter that made Alec cringe when he walked into Jam Pony.

He had just returned from his last run of the day and was hoping to make a quick exit before he had another confrontation with _her_. But she had probably expected as much, which was why she was there waiting for him when he arrived. Damn that sign-up board.

"Isn't it nice running into you here?" she said in a friendly tone that Alec knew was anything but friendly.

Alec didn't even bother to attempt a smirk in her direction. It would just encourage her. Normally, he wasn't intimidated by anyone but she wasn't just anyone. She was Normal's new girlfriend, Chelsea.

When Alec first heard that Normal was dating a woman, he had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at the image of what kind of woman would date Reagan Ronald. Then when she had dropped by Jam Pony a few months later to visit Normal at work, it wasn't a laughing matter for Alec. It amused the hell out of Max and Original Cindy though.

Chelsea was a recently divorced housewife who believed in going after whatever she wanted after discovering that her husband had the same philosophy while they were married. He had been doing more than just overtime at the office, namely the new secretary. Before the ink could dry on the divorce papers, she was out on the town looking for love in what could only be called "all the wrong places," because she had found herself with Normal. Her looks were nothing remarkable, but she wasn't ugly either. Big plastic-rimmed glasses, old-fashioned flower print dresses, dishwater blond hair and not overly made up. Normal had done all right for himself.

A plain woman in her forties who had been just as plain in her twenties, she didn't have high expectations for the kinds of men available to her. Then Alec had been called over for a delivery by Normal. He sauntered over to the dispatch counter and had decided to turn up the charm for her, flashing her one of his trademark smiles and complimenting Chelsea on her youthful appearance. He had been trying to bolster Normal's ego, and in effect ask to be left alone when he went an hour over his lunch break that afternoon. Of course Chelsea didn't know that. She had swooned over the fact that someone, a very young and very handsome someone, had taken an interest in her.

For the rest of the day, Alec could feel a pair of eyes that weren't Normal's following him around Jam Pony. It wasn't that he was unused to the fawning; it was just so damn unsettling that a woman that was willing to have sex with Normal was fantasizing about him too.

It didn't help much to see her bright and early the next day, working as a new full-time dispatcher and part-time Alec gazer. It was more than obvious that she had taken the position to get closer to Alec. Well, it was more than obvious to everyone except Normal who thought it was completely normal to ogle Alec and talk about him nonstop.

However, thankfully it wasn't Normal who called Alec into back room one afternoon and tried to molest him while he reached for something on the top shelf. Tried was the key word. She had attempted to invade his space but he was faster. Alec had hoped that she had gotten the clue the first four times she had tried, but the fifth time she decided to put the lock on the door. There was no getting away from her.

"Look Alec, there's no hiding from what we feel. We're two people who go after what they want. Let's just stop dancing around each other," she said flatly.

"What about Normal?" Alec had managed to choke out in a higher tone than he wanted. If his boss tried to come into the back room, he would surely lose his job and that wonderful sector pass.

"He'll get over it," Chelsea said, closing in on him.

He darted over to the other side of the room. Alec had been many things in his lifetime – soldier, breeding partner, piano teacher, pool hustler, bike messenger by day, cat burglar by night. However, he was not the kind of guy to steal someone else's girl. Especially not when that someone provided him with a paycheck and valid sector pass. At least he wasn't attracted to her, or he would have been in even more trouble.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place. He needed to come up with something and fast. So he did what any other man in his position would do – he lied.

"Well, you see… I'm flattered, I really am… but I'm already seeing someone," Alec told her.

That stopped her in her tracks and he got to the door and unlocked it.

She shot him an incredulous look. "Who?"

Who? Damn it, he'd have to choose someone that Chelsea had seen him spending time with. Sketchy was his only friend. No way was that going to work. Burn that thought and send it back to hell. Original Cindy? No, everyone knew which team she played for. That left only one other person. Alec drew in a deep breath, knowing that what he was about to say would be worse than anything Normal could dish out. "Max."

Chelsea stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out whether to believe him or not. "Max? Max Guevara? The one that smacks you around all the time?"

"Yes, that Max… See, it's all a cover. Normal's got this rule against office romance, so we've had to keep this off the radar or he'll can both our asses," Alec explained. Actually, the truth was that Normal would use it as an excuse to fire just Max, but Chelsea didn't need to know that.

"You really expect me to believe you're seeing her? She doesn't even seem happy to see you."

"Told you, it's an act. Why else would we spend so much time together if she didn't like me? And have you seen that girl? Hot body and hot temper? The sex is explosive," Alec chattered on. Well, that was his theory about how sex with Max would go… and the way a couple of very vivid fantasies went. An evil smirk was starting to cross his face, but he realized now wasn't the time for that sort of thinking. Him, Max, a closet. Too many fantasies. He almost had to smack himself back to reality.

From the look on Chelsea's face from seeing his reaction, that had been a sufficient response to keep her at bay. All men were the same – sex, sex, sex or work, work, work. Apparently, if they could mix the two, that made them even happier.

"Listen, we should keep this incident to ourselves. On top of Max's temper, she's also very possessive. If she hears someone put the moves on what is hers, she tends to put those people in a world of hurt. You seem like a nice person, so I'm just warning you," Alec said as he opened the door.

There. Crisis averted. Max wouldn't know. Normal wouldn't know. And Alec was safe. Or so he thought until that evening.

"Hi, Chelsea. I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got to meet Max or she'll have my ass," Alec said and kept walking to his locker.

"Really? I'm sure she won't mind too much, seeing as how she left here with _her boyfriend_ not too long ago," said Chelsea.

He couldn't let his panic show. Damn it, Logan just had to come by, didn't he? How was Alec going to explain this one? He needed an excuse and fast. Stall. "So you met Max's boyfriend Logan?"

Stepping out from behind the counter, she said, "Funny, I thought you were her boyfriend."

"I am. Her _real _boyfriend. Have you seen that guy? He's some rich guy who likes to buy her things. So she plays along with him to keep up the fringe benefits. They don't even touch, ask anyone. She's got this two foot rule with him, but he's still okay with it as long as he can say he's dating her," Alec said, surprising himself with how easy it was to lie about dating Max. Or how much the truth actually helped to make it seem plausible. "I know it's not right, but we're living in a post-Pulse world and you do what you gotta do to get by."

"Yeah, I'm not buying it," Chelsea said. "Are you really that afraid of what's between us? Because you don't have to be. I know you're not the type to settle and this must be difficult—"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Alec said, putting his hands up to guard himself. "Where's Normal?"

Great, this woman could not take a hint. How was he going to get out of this one?

"Reagan left early to deal with some client, so I'm locking up tonight," Chelsea informed him.

"Look, I'm not making this thing up about Max. And I'm warning you, she seriously has this thing against people who mess with me. No one kicks my ass around but her," Alec said.

"Then prove it. I'll go to Crash with you, and I'll see for myself," Chelsea said. "You don't have to keep hiding from the reaction between us. I'm sure Max will agree."

"Fine," he said. Then he sighed to himself, "Your funeral."

Well, this was just splendid. He was dead either way this went. Chelsea would throw herself at him and Normal would fire his ass. Or Max would kill him for ever implying that they got busy. Max was going to sell him out. He could just feel it. Maybe if he hadn't been an ass to her all those times – oh, who was he kidding? He wasn't going to live like some neutered puppy on the off chance that he'd need a favor from Max. Besides, how much of an ass he was never stopped her from saving him in the past. He would just have to beat Chelsea to Crash and hope Max was in a good mood. Of course, she was with Logan and she was usually pouting and staring longingly at him when they were together. For a moment, Alec wondered if the pizzeria was looking for delivery boys.

Zooming through traffic on his motorcycle, he knew he didn't have much time to convince Max to go along with this scheme and save his minimum wage job. Chelsea was taking her car to get there after Alec said that he didn't have an extra helmet. Fortunately, no one had taken his usual spot in the back alley beside Max's bike when he got there. That gave him a whole five minutes before Chelsea arrived.

He plunged into the depths of Crash. Where was Max? The one time he was looking for her and she was nowhere to be found. He did finally spot Cindy chatting up that cute blonde Dora or Danielle or something that he'd taken home last week. He almost got distracted by the idea of taking her out again. He cursed the entire female race for being so distracting and frustrating. Focus. There would be time for cavorting if he didn't have to spend his time looking for a new means of employment.

"Where's Max?" demanded Alec.

Original Cindy glared at him. Doreen, Delia, or whoever looked him up and down with a lustful look.

"Hello to you too," Cindy greeted him.

"Look Cindy, I'm in real trouble and I need to find Max," Alec said.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay. Then why you trippin' up my game when she's right over there?"

Alec looked in the direction that Original Cindy's head pointed toward. Max and Logan were sitting at a table in the back. How could he have missed them? He rushed over as fast as he could when he saw Chelsea enter the bar.

"Quick, Logan, I think someone is selling stolen puppies out of a van in the back. I think you can still catch them," Alec said, pushing Logan out of his seat so he could sit there.

"Alec, what the hell are you doing?" demanded Max, whose expression had gone from moping to pissed in two seconds flat.

"Look, Max I need you to do me a favor. But first, Logan needs to hit the road. There's a donation to Eyes Only in it if you leave in the next ten seconds," Alec quickly replied. He glanced over to where Chelsea was still looking for them. "Two missions and the names of three of the guys I do business with."

Logan looked to Max to see if he ought to take the deal. She shrugged. It wasn't a bad offer. "Four missions and three of the guys you do business with."

"Sure," Alec snapped. "Now go!"

"Max, I'll call you later," Logan told her. He made a fast exit, figuring that the boy had gotten himself into trouble yet again and only Max could bail him out.

"Alec—" Max gritted through her teeth.

"Normal's girlfriend Chelsea has been trying to score some action from me, but even I have standards. So I might have told her that you and I were hitting it to throw her off my case," Alec informed her. "All of this was going fine til you and Logan had to PDA all over Jam Pony today. Technically, this is all your fault, so you have to fix it."

Quiet fury was painted across Max's face. And it was that moment Chelsea chose to spot them. "Oh hell no."

"Please Max? I'll owe you big time." He attempted the saddest and most sincere expression he could muster, but she was unfazed. Wait, this was Max he was dealing with.

"No." So predictable.

Alec put on his poker face. "Don't make me tell Normal who put that new dent in his car."

"That was you!"

"But who do you think he's gonna believe?"

They were locked in a stare down when Chelsea found her way to their table.

"Hi Max, Alec. I heard this place was popular but I didn't think I'd see so many familiar faces," Chelsea said. It was more than obvious she was evaluating them and the position they were in, trying to discern the truth.

Max plastered a fake smile on her face. "Hey Chelsea. I didn't know this was your scene."

"Usually it's not, but I heard everyone talking about it and wanted to see for myself," she replied, giving disapproving glances all around her. Oh this woman was the worst recon specialist ever.

"Where's Normal?" asked Max. He couldn't possibly have been in Crash or the whole bar would have run out the moment they saw him.

"He wouldn't set foot in here. Doesn't like mixing work and pleasure," Chelsea said pointedly. "How come you two are sitting here by yourselves?"

A nervous laugh erupted from Alec. He was going to make some comment about being caught, and that he and Max were on a date, but Max didn't give him the chance to.

"What's this I hear about you putting the moves on my boy?" asked Max in a stern tone. Well, that sounded as wrong out loud as it did in her head. "And I may not be Normal's biggest fan, but creepin' behind his back is straight up wrong. So, I suggest you back up outta here before I decide to bounce you on your flat wannabe playa ass for deciding to run your game on my turf."

The older woman didn't look the least bit taken aback. "How do I know he's really 'your boy'? From the way you treat him, I don't think you deserve him. Or any man."

Okay, now this bitch was getting on Max's nerves. Any person willing to do both Normal and Alec in the same week had to have some screws loose. But no one was allowed to say that Alec was too good for her. No one.

When Max's hands left the mug she had been holding, Alec really thought she was going to clock the older woman. Instead, they grabbed him from across the table and brought his face crashing down against Max's.

She was kissing him.

Alec didn't need to be told to get with the program, and when her mouth opened slightly more, he seized the opportunity to deepen the kiss. He knew very well that she could have bitten him, but it was a risk he was willing to take because he would surely be a dead man once this was all over. Fortunately, she didn't bite him but further encouraged him by angling his head for better access to her mouth. Alec had no idea Max was so skilled with her tongue. It was the first time that someone had actually kissed him senseless. X5s had immense lung capacity, and theirs had finally been put to good use.

After a minute and a half, along with a couple of howls and whistles from the other patrons of Crash who happened to see, Max pushed him back into his seat. He hadn't been expecting it and toppled backwards, taking the stool with him onto the floor with his head spinning.

Max smiled with evil sweetness. "You were saying? Now if I hear anymore about you getting all up on him again, I will show you what else I'm capable of. And what can I say? Some boys like it rough. I doubt you'd know how to handle him."

Chelsea nodded dumbly. Well, she knew when to let something go. Alec certainly was not worth the trouble or wrath of Max. She turned and made a beeline for the exit. Max quickly started drinking her beer in the hopes of removing the taste of Alec, but she was sure that not even rubbing alcohol could do the trick.

"Thanks Max—" Alec began, having regained his composure. He was about to sit up, but Max's kick to the chest had him back on the ground.

"You listen, and you listen good smart ass. The only reason I helped you out was because I was worried that you'd take up something stupider than cage fighting if Normal canned your ass. So I was doing us both a favor," Max said, her boot pressing into him. "You're doing my deliveries for the next month or I will tell Normal about this. And if you ever repeat what happened here to Logan or anyone else, getting fired will be the least of your worries? Got it?"

"So, I guess this means the date's over?"

Max groaned and kicked him again before getting out of her seat.

"Well, I guess all those fairytales were wrong. Kiss a frog, it just stays a frog."

"Is that a stab at my genetic cocktail? Because if it is, I'm hurt."

Alec finally managed to get back on his feet, brushing himself off. Then he gave her an exaggerated look of hurt, but a grin was pulling at his lips.

Max rolled her eyes in disdain. "You can kiss my transgenic ass… And no, that's not an invitation."

* * *

A/N: Well, what did you think of this one? I thought it would be fun to give Max the last line instead of Alec. I also want to know if I should do a second version of 'Hero,' except it will be Max's perspective of what took place instead of Alec's.


	12. L is for Last

A/N: My apologies for being off the radar for so long. I know it's not an update for _Wake Me Up…_ but I'm working on it, I swear. It'll be posted after I get 'Mind' out of my system.

A/N 2: This takes place after 'Love Among the Runes.'

* * *

**LAST**

"So, how long is _this_," Alec said, gesturing his hand at Max and himself, "supposed to last?"

They were drinking alone at a table in Crash for the first time in what felt like ages since Biggs' death and the close call with White's men at Jam Pony. Original Cindy was by the pool tables, chatting up some honey with curly blond hair. Sketchy had been avoiding Max and Alec since he found out that two of his best friends were 'those mutant freaks on TV.' They had decided to give him some space and hopefully he'd get over it. If not, well, there were bigger problems.

Sitting by themselves wasn't too detrimental to Max's health or the back of Alec's head though. It just seemed to encourage the rumor that they were dating. Surprisingly, the rumor had come in handier than either would have thought.

Whenever they snuck off to Terminal City or take care of some transgenic business, no one asked too many questions. In the minds of the Jam Pony messengers, Max and Alec were working out their months of unresolved sexual tension, not heading up the Transgenic Underground.

"What do you mean?" asked Max, taking a melancholy sip from her beer.

"I mean, how long do we keep pretending to hook up for Logan's sake?" he replied, swirling the scotch in his glass and then looking at her. "A few months and you catch me cheating on you with some girl in a strip club, then we break up? It'll be messy and you punch me in the face. Or do we elope and never have sex like most other married couples?"

Max rolled her eyes. "What're you going on about? We're doing this to keep Logan away from me so he doesn't die."

"Yeah, but for how long?" Alec demanded. "Finding the cure has dropped a few spots on your priority list these days. What happens if you don't find it?"

That wasn't the real question that was bothering him. No, the real question was, what would happen if Max and Logan did find their cure? Before the virus, Logan had been Max's sidekick and the position had only opened up because they couldn't touch. What would happen when Logan went back to being the first person Max called for help? She made it clear that she was only keeping him around because he was useful. Alec wouldn't have his best friend anymore that was for sure. He needed to know if he had to make the most of these moments before they were gone.

How long? Max hadn't really thought much about how this whole fake relationship business would play out. Logan was supposed to walk away from her, but thanks to the runes he would be sticking around indefinitely. Someday they would find the cure when the time was right. Until then, they would have to stay apart. She hadn't given up hope on finding the cure. Someday.

Max felt hurt and anger swell inside of her. "What's got you all rotated? Not getting laid enough?"

She could see him bristle in annoyance. "You never think things through, do you? You just jump in head first and screw what happens after. You blew up the DNA lab and we got stuck in that ridiculous breeding program. You blew up Manticore and didn't think what would happen to all the people you let out."

"Well, I _didn't_ let your head blow up and look how well that's turned out," Max shot back. "This is just until Logan and I find the cure. Things are screwed up right now, but it's still out there. So, please don't let me stand in the way of you finding a new breeding partner in the meantime."

"Maybe I don't want a new breeding partner," Alec told her in a sharp tone. "The last thing I want is another relationship that's just a job. I'm out of here. Call me when you need something real."

He stood up, but she got up at the same time and pushed him back into his seat. He scowled.

"That's rich coming from you, Mr. One Liner, One Night Stand. You had a _real_ shot with Asha and you blew it," she said as he stood up again.

"Yeah, right. It wouldn't've lasted. You know why? Because we don't belong with them," said Alec.

Then he walked away from her and out of Crash. She would see him again in Terminal City, they had a heist to pull at the docks in a few hours. They would just put this spat behind them and do the job they planned.

Where did he get off saying that she and Logan were probably over for good? He didn't know the first thing about relationships. She and Logan had hit a rough patch. Every relationship had one, and so they needed to put some space between them for the time being. Even Mia had said that things would eventually work out. And she was Psy-ops! Then why did Alec's comment bother her so much?

"Do you need me to kick his ass?" asked Original Cindy when she returned alone to their table.

Max shook her head. "Nah, I'll beat his ass later."

"Boo, you usually more eager to put the smackdown on your boy. Tell Original Cindy what's wrong," she said.

Her friend looked her in the eyes and thought for a moment.

"Nothing's wrong. Alec was just being Alec. Wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last."


	13. M is for Mind

A/N: For some reason, the scene in 'Dawg Day Afternoon' where Asha and Logan talked about Max and Alec's "relationship" got stuck in my head. I decided to take a peek into Asha's head, since she seemed to be a little too into the idea of Max and Alec as a couple.

* * *

**MIND**

"Heard from her?" Asha asked casually as she leaned against a desk in Logan's home office.

"Still won't talk to me," Logan replied in a decisive tone. His eyes didn't leave his computer screen, but she knew it wasn't because of devotion to his work.

"Give her time," she replied easily, then smiled. "She's just scared."

Asha could only imagine how difficult it had been for Max to admit the truth to Logan. He loved her so much, even when he thought she was dead he didn't give up hope on reuniting with her. It had been the stuff of drugstore romance novels and Hollywood films. A love that was absolutely pure and passionate and perplexing. How could someone look into the face of that and say, _No thanks, I'd rather skip the drama and do the hot X5 with the motorcycle and commitment issues_?

She didn't envy Max that burden. It also meant that maybe, just maybe, that epic love could be Asha's someday now that Max was out of the picture.

Thinking about Max and Alec, Asha couldn't help smiling at how obvious it had all been. They were constantly having their own conversations away from everyone in Crash. She imagined there were several secrets between them. She had yet to see Max react as passionately to anyone as she did with Alec. She was a little too angry at him once too often, when Asha thought about it. She wasn't supposed to love him, she was supposed to love Logan. So she lashed out, trying to fight what she wasn't supposed to be feeling. Then there was Alec. Max was the only other person he gave a damn about besides himself, and the only person who could put his ass in line.

How many times had Alec put himself in the line of fire for Max? He had helped her save that mermaid. He had her back when she was trying to save the S1W. When Logan wanted Max, all he had to do was call Alec. If that wasn't love – bullets, bad guys and matching bad-ass attitudes – what was?

The night when Max and Logan had their temporary cure, Alec had been downing drinks alone at Crash before Asha arrived. Though much of the evening would become a drunken haze in her memory, she could remember his intense cynicism towards their friends' relationship. He called Logan "a repressed WASP" and Max was "a broken toy." _They'd never work_. Why did he care?

Asha had been so busy drowning her sorrows about losing Logan that she had missed his bitterness and resentment at losing the woman he loved. Alec had been far from happy for them as he downed shot after shot with Asha at Crash. He had probably only come to the realization of how he felt for Max when she was with Logan, and just decided to go back to his carpe diem pick up lines and empty relationships. That was safer than acknowledging that he just had his heart broken. They had been raised not to think of themselves as humans but weapons. What would he know about love and expressing it? Asha could imagine the toll it took on their emotional coping skills as well.

Then, like some divine act of fate, it turned out that the virus wasn't really cured. Max and Logan weren't back together; they hadn't even consummated their relationship. It had sent Alec back-pedaling away from Asha after several decisive efforts to get into her pants. He had been hitting on her since he came back to Seattle, only to all of a sudden decide that he didn't want anything to do with her once Max was a free agent again.

"Hm, I'm the one that almost died last week," Logan pointed out.

Logan hadn't gone into the details of what Max and Alec had been up to when he discovered them at her apartment building. He had choked out a broken tale of seeing Alec leaving early one morning. The X5s' parting was a warm and intimate, both smiling as they held each other close. Later that evening when Logan confronted her, she admitted it. Asha could only imagine how that conversation must have gone.

"You don't think that was scary for her?" asked Asha. "She's a loner. She's not used to worrying about anyone else. This relationship stuff, it's all new to her… It's new to the both of them."

Maybe Alec had taken his borrowed time speech from that night seriously and told Max how he felt. Asha could see him doing that.

Alec would have pulled Max aside one night at Crash with a playful attempt at a pick up line to break the ice. She would rebuff him, probably with a smack across the head, asking if he'd gotten baked with Sketchy. He would stop smiling and in his hazel green eyes she would catch a glimpse of his soul. She would remain still as he made some confession that he would hope to play off as a joke if she decided that she didn't love him too.

Knowing Max, she would have run off into the night in an effort to come to terms with it. Then a day later she would show up at his apartment door after realizing that she couldn't stay away from him. The reason she was angry at him all the time was because he made her feel things for him that she shouldn't have felt. He'd tell her to forget it and she was only looking for a Logan substitute. But she would prove him wrong by kissing him in the doorway just like at the end of all those Saturday afternoon movies.

"Both?" asked Logan.

"Her and Alec," Asha answered.

It seemed natural for Max and Alec to clash before coming to terms with their feelings for one another. For their entire lives they had kept people at a distance, and at the first signs of genuine affection they would balk and run in the opposite direction. In their world, they had to be cruel to be kind. Getting attached meant making themselves vulnerable, and neither was willing to show that kind of weakness. No wonder it had taken them so long to see what was in front of them.

"Right," said Logan.

He spotted something on the film. A car driving away. He zoomed in the picture to see White's face staring back at him. He was probably relieved to change the topic of conversation.

"Better let Max know," Logan decided and Asha looked at the clock.

It was late. She didn't want to say that maybe it wasn't a good idea to call. It wasn't an emergency and he would just come off looking desperate by calling Max in the middle of the night when she was probably with Alec.

When Max didn't respond to the first two pages, Asha decided not to stick around to shield both Logan and herself from the indignity of what he was doing. Apparently he still hadn't gotten over her.

As Asha shut the door behind her, she realized that he was still healing. She didn't expect him to get over Max overnight. He loved too passionately to let things go that easily. Still, in her mind, someday she imagined he would let go of Max, then they would have their chance at that messed up, post-Pulse kind of love you could only get in a broken world.


	14. N is for Name

A/N: Listening to "Name" by The Goo Goo Dolls. This song always reminds me of Dark Angel and the 09ers. It's also one of my all time favorites.

* * *

**NAME **

When Logan called to say that he had big news, Max almost expected to hear that he and Asha had eloped over the weekend. What was she supposed to think after he canceled Friday dinner and hadn't called her all week? Not to mention every time she called him, he would say he was busy with a case and would call her back later.

Somehow "later" had turned into almost two weeks after the first time he said it. She was on her last run of the day when her pager went off. Alec was with her and knew he had to hand over the cell phone. He rolled his eyes as Max agreed to meet Logan at the penthouse after work but was a little relieved he didn't have to go too and watch them stare longingly at each other like two kicked puppies, then be shot at by the criminal dunderhead of the week.

When she opened the door to Logan's apartment, she had every intention of letting him know that she wasn't his doormat. He was sitting in his wheelchair with his back to her as he typed away at his computer. She opened her mouth, ready to give him a piece of her mind when he turned to face her with a huge smile on his face. Her agitation crumbled and fell away, and the scowl on her face was replaced by a look of confusion. The look deepened when Logan sprung the news on her – he had tracked down a Manticore doctor working as a vet in Tacoma.

Max wasn't sure how to react and stood there simply staring as Logan explained that he had been busy hunting him down and making sure that he was legit. They had so many false chances, he didn't want to mention anything until he knew that this wasn't just another dead end. She nodded as she tried to wrap her head around what he was saying.

His name was Glenn Sharpe and he ran an animal hospital. But before the Pulse, he was Dr. Samuel Locke working at a VA hospital in Gillette, Wyoming. When the facility closed in 2009, he was reassigned to Seattle and in the process of moving there, the Pulse hit and Samuel Locke was one of the many people to vanish into the chaos. From Logan's research, Sharpe had been involved with the genetics division and he could possibly be their key to finding the cure to the virus…

That was all Max needed to hear and she was on her bike to Tacoma. She would call Alec or Cindy when she got there to tell Normal that her uncle's cat died or something, but at the moment all Max could think about was how close she was to the cure and touching Logan again. She knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up, that didn't stop her from thinking about riding her bike with Logan and just the feel of his hand on hers.

As Max stealthily waited for Dr. Sharpe to close up for the evening, she thought of all the little things that would be different when she and Logan could touch again – holding hands, making dinner together, sharing a glass of wine…

The click of a key in a lock snapped Max's mind back to where she was. She was standing in the back alley of an animal hospital watching a middle-aged man in a white lab coat and wire-rim glasses close up for the night. No he was more than that. He was one of those monsters playing god with animals on a level his patients probably couldn't dream of.

Before she knew it, it was time to make her move. He was still facing the door when she slipped out of the shadows.

"Glenn Sharpe? Or I should say Samuel Locke?" Max said in a cool and even tone.

For an instant he was frozen in place with his hand still on the doorknob, then he turned to her with a stern face. It wasn't the panicked, terror-stricken appearance Max had been expecting. Maybe it was because this guy had been waiting for his past to catch up with him at some point for so long that the actual moment hadn't caught him unprepared.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied calmly.

"Wow, you kept Manticore off your tail for ten years with lame ass comebacks like that?" Max rolled her eyes.

The doctor didn't reply and studied her for a moment. He seemed to be looking at something familiar, though to Max's knowledge they had never met. Perhaps he had known Sam or seen her picture when Lydecker caught wind of her in Seattle because she couldn't recall him from any of her memories at Manticore.

"X5-453, right? I heard they locked the barracks and burned the place to the ground when Eyes Only did the broadcast," he said thoughtfully, then looked her up and down. "Guess I did a good job after all. What do you want with me?"

Max sneered. "Actually, it's 452… And I have a proposition for you—would you quit looking at me like that before I beat your ass?"

"Right… One of the escapees," he said and stopped examining her from head to toe, his eyes became fixated on her face. "What would you want with a Manticore doctor? Seizures still bad? Don't blame me, not my specialty. No, Hendricks was in charge of that—"

"I'm not here to talk about my DNA exactly… Manticore put some freaky genetically targeted virus in me to get rid of a friend of mine and I was wondering if you could help us find a cure?" Max asked bluntly.

He stood there with a thoughtful look on his face and answered, "Sorry can't help you. That sort of thing was just drunk bar talk when I was there."

"Look, I went to a lot of trouble to track you down—" Max began but he cut her off.

"Begging? I see the real world has taken its toll on you. Lydecker would never stand for that shit—" he informed her and suddenly found himself pressed into the wall of the animal hospital with Max's forearm against his neck.

A sneer was etched into her face as she stared at the terrified older man she held captive. Max wasn't sure where that flurry of rage coursing through her had come from. Was it the mention of Lydecker and her messed up childhood? Or maybe it was the notion that this guy's bad attitude was the one thing standing between her, Logan, and the cure?

"How about you shut the hell up before you really take one for old Manticore screwing me over?" Max shot back, then loosened the force on him so he could breathe easily again.

Dr. Sharpe let out a choked cough. "God, you're just like your surrogate. There goes my thesis on personality being genetic rather than acquired."

Of all the things Max would have thought he'd say that was not on the list. It was the last thing she had expected to hear come out of his mouth. Out of anyone's mouth. The world seemed to stop for a moment as she tried to process what he said.

"You remember my mother?" asked Max in a bewildered tone.

"Oh, yeah. She had a nasty left hook," he went on as he made a half-assed attempt to break her hold on him. "Look, pathogens? Not my specialty. And it's been a while since I spliced DNA, and let me tell you, I don't think it's like riding a bike."

"We can pay you," Max tried again after focusing on why she had him in her grasp.

He sighed. "You're barking up the wrong tree. I couldn't help even if I wanted to. Something tells me a vet's lab isn't going to cut it."

She bit her bottom lip in frustration. The man had a point. It looked like she was going to have to cut her losses. Again. "Fine… Just tell me one thing then. What was the name of my mother?"

"Why would you want the name of your surrogate? You do know she's not a DNA donor—"

"Look, do you want me out of your life now or after I introduce you to your colon?" she shot back.

Sharpe swallowed in fear that she probably would make good on her threat. "I give you the name, and you never show your face around here again?"

"It's Tacoma, I doubt I'll be shopping for vacation homes here."

He studied her again. "I don't remember splicing snark into your coding… Damn, there goes seven years of my life that I'll never get back."

"Just give me the name," said Max in an exasperated tone.

"Martina Emilia Ledesma," he said impatiently.

"Know anything else?" Max asked, brushing aside the rush that came with hearing the name of her mother for the first time.

He shook his head. "It's not like we sat around sipping coffee together, swapping life stories."

"Yet she still found the time to clock you, I'm shocked," Max said in a dry tone, stepping back from him.

"Look, I've told you everything I know…" Dr. Sharpe responded. Then he thought for a moment. "Are we done?"

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"You got any better sources?"

Max rolled her eyes. "Get out of my sight before I change my mind about introducing your face to your colon."

With no more than a quick nod, the older man scurried off into the night, his white coat trailing behind him. Max simply stood there, watching another chance to be with Logan fade away. She should have known it was too good to be true. What was she going to tell him? Sorry Logan, the guy wasn't down for it and we're going to have to face the idea that we may never be able to touch again?

As she quietly padded the trek back to her motorcycle, she thought about the one thing she may have gained from this attempt at finding the cure… The name of her mother. After all these years, she finally had a name, not that it did her current situation any good.

Still, a name was better than nothing.

Martina Emilia Ledesma.

It was something Max could hold on to. Maybe someday she would find the face to match the name.

* * *

A/N 2: I know I've been AWOL for a bit, but blame real life for swallowing up all my free time. I know this story doesn't feature Alec and it's because this will is the first part of a short multi-chapter M/A fic that I will post separately. No worries, I'm still working on _After Life_ and _Wake Me Up_ and I'm hoping to roll out updates for those soon. I just need to get this story out of my system. So stay tuned…


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